Spider Web Cookies

Spider Web Cookies - Lori S.
Recipe and pictures from: Spider Web Cookies

(Lori's disclaimer - these were harder than I thought they would be. Decorating the cookies with the glaze was tricky!)
Sugar Cookies

1 1/2 cups butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
5 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt

Cream butter and sugar together. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in flour, baking powder and salt. Chill for 1 hour.

Roll dough into balls about the size of a ping pong ball and place them on a cookie sheet. Flatten the dough balls with your hands.

Then mix up the frosting glaze before you bake your cookies. The cookies will not work if you don't frost them right out of the oven.

For the glaze: (**I had to double this recipe**)
2 3/4 cup powdered sugar
2 tsp. shortening
3 Tbsp. water
1 Tbsp. corn syrup
1/4 tsp. vanilla

Beat all ingredients well. Separate about 3/4 cup of the glaze into another bowl and add desired food coloring(black). Put the colored glaze into a pastry bag with a small writing tip. (Be sure the glaze is not too runny. Add more powdered sugar if it is.)

Bake cookies in a 400 degree oven for approximately 6 to 8 minutes.

Now, when your cookies are RIGHT out of the oven - and I mean piping hot - take a few off the tray and begin frosting them with the non-colored glaze (I leave the rest on the tray to keep them warm until I frost them). Pipe the colored glaze in a bulls eye like this:

Then take a toothpick (or BBQ skewer in my case) and start in the center of the bulls eye and lightly draw lines going to the edge of the cookie. Repeat all around for spiderweb effect. [Hint: I never put the next batch of cookies in the oven until I have decorated the first. You HAVE to do this when the cookies are warm, otherwise the glaze doesn't melt on the cookies and they will look dumb. Trust me. I learned that the hard way.]













Add a plastic spider to each spider web cookie.